Poll: Gov. Kasich Would Lose Do-Over Election By 25 Points

By Jon Terbush

May 26, 2011 4:51 am

Since signing a bill earlier this year to strip public unions of most of their collective bargaining rights, Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s (R) approval rating has plummeted, bottoming out at a new low in a PPP poll released Wednesday. As if that weren’t bad enough, the poll also found Kasich losing a theoretical do-over election — by an enormous 25-point margin.

Kasich narrowly defeated incumbent Gov. Ted Strickland (D) last November, and almost immediately set his sights on rolling back public sector collective bargaining rights through a bill known as S.B. 5. That drive was deeply unpopular with his constituents, prompting large protests and sending the governor’s approval rating into a nosedive.

In the latest poll, only 33% of registered voters said they approve of Kasich’s job performance, compared to 56% who said the disapprove of it. That result ties Kasich with Florida’s Rick Scott (R) as the most unpopular of the 38 governors PPP has surveyed.The current TPM Poll Average shows that 52.5% of Ohioans disapprove of Kasich’s job performance, while 35.5% approve of it.

Kasich is now so unpopular that in a hypothetical do-over election, PPP found him getting shellacked by Strickland 59% to 34%. Kasich eked out a win last year by just a two-point margin.

Back in March, PPP also showed Kasich losing in a do-over contest. But in that poll, he lost by a relatively modest 15-point spread, 55% to 40%.

Kasich’s union-busting bill is the driving force behind his falling approval rating. In the poll, 55% of voters said they would vote to repeal S.B. 5, while 35% said they would let it stand. A Quinnipiac poll released last week presented a similar finding, with a majority of registered voters in that survey also saying they would like to see the law repealed.

The PPP poll was conducted May 19-22 among 565 registered voters. It has a margin of error of 4.1%.